{"title":"Daylight Saving Records","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"the-soft-struggles","title":"The Soft Struggles","description":"\u003cp\u003eDavid Brewis of the band Field Music releases his debut solo record \u003ci\u003eThe Soft Struggles\u003c\/i\u003e. After three albums as School of Language, David Brewis’s next contribution to the ever-expanding Field Music universe is this jazz-inflected acoustic record. It is also be the second album release on Field Music’s newly formed Daylight Saving Records label, intended as the home for the Brewis brothers’ extra-curricular projects.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Soft Struggles \u003c\/i\u003eveers away from Field Music’s eclectic palette and instead leans into the luminous spontaneity of Van Morrison’s \u003ci\u003eAstral Weeks\u003c\/i\u003e and the breathy, string-laden chamber pop of Colin Blunstone’s \u003ci\u003eOne Year.\u003c\/i\u003e Several of the tracks were built around a single day of live recording at Field Music’s studio in Sunderland, with David’s brother Peter on drums, Sarah Hayes (Admiral Fallow, You Tell Me) on piano and flute and Faye MacCalman (Archipelago) on clarinet and saxophone.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“There’s something a bit magical about a bunch of musicians together in a room being thrown in at the deep end,” says David,  “So many of my favourite records were made quickly by musicians sitting a few feet from each other, playing songs they’d never even heard before the session began. That’s what I tried to do with this album. A chord sheet, a set of lyrics, a brief chat about tempo and then, okay comrades, see you at the other side.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe soft struggles of the songs themselves touch on weariness and loss, disappointments allayed or accepted, anxieties overcome or temporarily elbowed aside, sometimes grasping for romantic, or parental, wisdom, and when wisdom isn’t quite in reach, there are songs of consolation and wry hopefulness.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe album also features contributions from singer Eve Cole, trombones by David Smith and Craig Hissett, saxophones on The Last Day by Pete Fraser, and strings courtesy of regular Field Music collaborators Ed Cross, Jo Montgomery, Chrissie Slater and Ele Leckie.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Daylight Saving Records","offers":[{"title":"Pink LP | Signed Copy | Rough Trade Exclusive","offer_id":50421221818699,"sku":"2000378","price":25.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Black LP","offer_id":50421219295563,"sku":"2000377","price":27.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":50421215887691,"sku":"2000376","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/4ujkXyfq_658e6a41_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1726756358"},{"product_id":"blow-dry-colossus","title":"Blow Dry Colossus","description":"\u003cp\u003eDaylight Saving Records release \u003ci\u003eBlowdry Colossus\u003c\/i\u003e, the new solo album by Field Music’s Peter Brewis. The record is Peter’s first solo venture since 2008’s The Week That Was and follows collaborative albums with Paul Smith (on 2014’s Frozen By Sight) and Sarah Hayes (on 2019’s You Tell Me). The album was recorded over the last year at the Field Music studio in Sunderland, and features contributions from Peter’s brother David, Sarah Hayes and Peter’s son Alexander.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePeter’s work with Field Music, and across all the parallel projects he’s undertaken, has always been characterised by curiosity; an urge to find new musical and lyrical avenues to explore, to mine under-appreciated influences, to combine disparate musical strands. Blowdry Colossus makes this tendency more explicit than ever.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“I wanted to make something where the music was the focus.” says Peter, “With songs, the lyrics tend to carry the meaning: ‘This song is about...'. I wanted the music to be the meaning - the melodies, harmonies, sounds, structures.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe mostly-instrumental album takes cues from the knowing exotica of Yellow Magic Orchestra, the quizzical tunefulness of Thelonious Monk and the pastoral abstractions of Penguin Cafe Orchestra. It also has more than a touch of the hyperactive fizz of 8-bit game soundtracks. And like Kraftwerk’s records of the mid and late-70s, this is synthesizer music as art music rather than dance music. But where Kraftwerk took the melodic purity of Schubert and gave it a chilly formality, on Blowdry Colossus, Peter takes the same elevation of melody and plunges it into a kind of playful chaos, heavy with rhythmic ingenuity.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe record is also heavy with sonic mutation. A piano is fed through a ring-modulator until it resembles a flute. A flute combines with an old casio and becomes a ghostly, tuneful breath. Synth drum loops morph into arpeggios of bubbles, or are remade as overdriven hiccups. And, of course, there’s the eponymous hero of the title track: a hairdryer fugue gradually giving way to a squelching, off-balance take on Zeppelin-esque riff rock.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe only lyrics on the album appear on Dog Bark Dark, a surreal wild-dog chase. “I thought I’d have one actual song on here, for something different!” says Peter, “I was thinking of YMO, Quincy Jones, early 90s dance and Captain Beefheart. And the guitar solo was meant to be the discarded bits from Steve Miller’s Abracadabra.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThroughout the album, it feels like we’ve been diligently following the steps of the KLF’s seminal Manual, but once we were sitting in the studio, drinking tea and tinkering with the sequencer, we decided to give up on having a number one hit and keep playing purely for the joy. Hence, the foray into New Jack Swing on Generation Dial Up or the Eno-esque interlude of Warm Wind.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Daylight Saving Records","offers":[{"title":"Black LP","offer_id":50425628033355,"sku":"2027944","price":23.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":50425626427723,"sku":"2027941","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"LP","offer_id":50425627771211,"sku":"2027942","price":24.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/rYORFyvA_da668557_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1726792167"},{"product_id":"thy-socialite","title":"Thy Socialite!","description":"\u003cp\u003eSlug return with a new album, \u003ci\u003eThy Socialite!\u003c\/i\u003e, on a new label formed by Field Music’s Peter and David Brewis. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e “I started to think about what I could do to challenge my own listeners,” says Ian Black aka SLUG. “And what would be my angle without just releasing 40 minutes of generic bad music?” \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis was a question that Black found himself asking after thinking about albums made by revered artists who released specific records that some of their loyal fanbase hated - Arctic Monkeys and ‘Tranquillity Base Hotel and Casino’, Leonard Cohen and ‘Death of a Ladies Man’, Lou Reed and ‘Berlin’. “My friend likened Lou’s ‘Berlin’ to ‘Andrew Lloyd Webber on a horrendous drug come down’. Andrew Lloyd Webber on a horrendous drug come down? That sounds amazing!” \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Although \u003ci\u003eThy Socialite!’\u003c\/i\u003e the first release from Field Music’s new record label, Daylight Saving Records, is not the sound of Lloyd Webber quivering and sweating in a rotting Berlin flat but instead, a fun, joyous, audacious record of hard rock, glam, and pop that ranges from arena to art school. “I wanted to include a more rockist palette,” Black says. “My last album, ‘Higgledypiggledy’, had influences including The Cardiacs, Prince and The Residents. For this one I wanted to see what I could get out of less indie audience friendly artists such as Toto, Sweet, Wings, Def Leppard and ZZ Top and merge it with a Slug sensibility. Due to the more rock approach, I was happy for the album to become a big classic rock unit - pompous even.” \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHowever, simply a pastiche and nostalgic throwback this isn’t. Despite the playful nods to some of the more grandiose, theatrical and overblown elements of the aforementioned genre, it’s also an album with a contemporary pop edge, slick production and a tangible connection to Slug’s previous deft mix of indie, rock and art pop. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFor David Brewis of Field Music, it was the ideal first record to kick off their new label. “This seemed like the perfect start for Daylight Saving Records,” he says. “We’ve always loved what Ian does and it’s been a thrill over the years to help Ian dig these wild musical ideas out from his brain. Now we can have a hand in putting them into people’s ears too.”\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Daylight Saving Records","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":50466868101451,"sku":"2004486","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"LP","offer_id":50466869674315,"sku":"2004487","price":24.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/Thy_Socialite_8dcf6ee2_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727327058"},{"product_id":"songs-from-the-shelf","title":"Songs from the Shelf","description":"\u003cp\u003eDaylight Saving Records release “Songs from the Shelf”, the debut EP by John Monroe aka Andrew Moore, founding member of Field Music.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAfter the release of Field Music’s second album\u003ci\u003e Tones of Town\u003c\/i\u003e in 2007 the trio of Peter Brewis, David Brewis and Andrew Moore, physically and financially wrung out by the indie circuit slog, called it quits. Peter and David both busied themselves with solo projects, eventually buying enough time and creating enough context to return as Field Music in 2010. While it may have seemed that Andrew had quietly stepped back to real life, that’s not quite the whole story.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAndrew’s presence on Field Music records continued, from sprinkling Hammond fairy dust on 2016’s \u003ci\u003e The Noisy Days Are Over\u003c\/i\u003e to his central role as composer and performer on the \u003ci\u003eMusic for Drifters\u003c\/i\u003e soundtrack. But also, and less visibly, Andrew started his own pseudonymous solo project. Backed by Peter and David, recording sessions for a dozen songs took place in 2007 and 2008, mostly piano-led, with echoes of Billy Joel’s new wave hustle, Randy Newman’s wry Americana and Todd Rundgren’s playful experimentalism. They were referred to as the “John Monroe” songs, after an old mishearing of Andrew’s name as spoken in his soft North East baritone.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOf course, real life has a habit of getting in the way. Time gets tight and despite sporadic attempts to finish the recordings in the intervening years, they remained on the shelf. Until now. With the Field Music schedule uncharacteristically clear and the idea for Daylight Saving Records providing new impetus, Andrew set about revamping and finalising the songs, or at least enough of the songs for an EP: an attempt to draw a line under this project which we’ve now lived with and loved for 16 years.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Daylight Saving Records","offers":[{"title":"12\"","offer_id":50975333744971,"sku":"2026623","price":19.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/Songs_from_the_Shelf_-_EP_d8aeef8d_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1734144844"}],"url":"https:\/\/shop.roughtrade.com\/collections\/daylight-saving-records.oembed","provider":"Rough Trade","version":"1.0","type":"link"}